The Landscape and Prognosis Potential of the T-Cell Repertoire in Membranous Nephropathy.

Membranous nephropathy (MN), a common pathological type of adult nephrotic syndrome, is an antibody-mediated kidney disease. It is widely accepted now that MN is an immune-related disease that involves the whole immune system. In this study, we analyzed the T-cell receptor beta chain (TCR beta) repertoire of the circulating T lymphocytes of MN patients and healthy controls using high-throughput sequencing. We compared multiple aspects of the TCR beta repertoire, including diversity and the V beta and J beta genes between MN patients and healthy controls, and we found that the diversities within the VJ cassette combination in the peripheral blood of MN patients were lower than in the healthy controls. We also found the TCR beta repertoire similarity between pre- and post-therapy could reflect the clinical outcome, and two V beta genes in pre-therapy had the potential to predict the therapeutic effect. These findings indicated the potential of the TCR beta repertoire as non-invasive biomarkers for the prognosis prediction of MN. The characteristics of circulating T-lymphocyte repertoires shed light on MN detection, treatment, and surveillance.